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Wheelie by In Hye Kim

Well-being, Industrial Design

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Group Members: Sam Tsai, Lawrence Yen, Jesse Resnick

Problem/Non-Profit: In Hye Kim was forcing on animal wheel chairs for her Senior Thesis. She found out that the traditional animal wheel chair does not have enough support for the body weight instead of giving more pressure to other non-injury legs. Also, the prejudice thought for people and animal was a big regard for In Hye. She was working in partnership with UC DAVIS. The mission with UC DAIVS was to provide a care program which encourages, fosters and facilitates all aspects of health, well-being and disease of companion animals.

Strengths/Weakness: Apparently, In Hye added the third wheel into a conventional animal wheel chair, which release much pressure to non-injury legs. In her design, we see an innovative looking wheelchair for animal. She applied new material, memory foam and transparent plastic, for the body supporting area, which is spectacular. She even thought about the moment when product is being rented in hospital, which we love as a group. She did put herself into masters of those disabled animals’ shoes.
We found several aspects that this project can be even better. First, the information board about this project was very unclear interns of the material of this product and user scenario in different situations such as different size of animal and different area of animal’s body is injured. Second, we were wondering if the third wheel really works as she said on the board. Because the new design provides so much body support, will the injured animal lose control on a tilted or uneven surface?

Proposed Improvement: As a group, we tried to dig into the original problem of conventional animal wheelchairs. We saw many same problems like In Hye did; however, we felt that even though In Hye solved some problems, she also created some other problems. The wheelchair she designed seems only for specific size of animal and rear legs. Therefore, we came out some solutions such as adjustable body supporting component that can be used for front legs and rear legs. We also, brainstormed different ways to support the body weight of the injured animal interns of long and short tern use.